


to return the morning after

by carryonstarkid



Category: Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24741046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carryonstarkid/pseuds/carryonstarkid
Summary: By request of Nicole: "What happened after Columbia?"
Relationships: Matthew Morgan/Rachel Morgan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	to return the morning after

Joe’s going to know.

Oh god, Joe is _so_ going to know. The guy notices _everything_. He’s going to see the marks on Rachel’s collar. He’s going to see the smiles and—oh _god_. Is she wearing his boxers? How did they _miss_ that?

Joe’s going to know, but Matt is going to use every covert tactic in his arsenal to make sure that Rachel Cameron does _not_ have to face his roommate’s smug, I-told-you-so grin. Which is going to be hard. Because as it so happens, Joe himself had taught Matt everything he knows.

Oh _god_.

It takes three keys and a six-digit code to get into his apartment, because Joe’s the most paranoid guy in the world and Matt’s inclined to follow his lead. The keys seem to make so much more noise this time around, and punching in the code feels like a stab to the chest with each muted beep.

Matt looks down to Rachel, almost as if to apologize. It’s a little embarrassing, having this much protection on an apartment, but then Matt remembers the stories she’s told him about the Gallagher Academy. Compared to that, Joe Solomon’s House of High Security is probably a cakewalk. She doesn’t even seem to notice.

Because she’s looking at him.

To be honest, Matt’s pretty much _dying_ to kiss her again—among other things—but he doesn’t dare. Joe practically lives with one eye out of the peephole, so Matt’s got to keep a respectable distance. 

She’s got this newfound lilt to her smile that Matt’s never seen before. Something as sweet as it is salty. As soft as it is spicy. Rachel Morgan is an excellent operative—possibly the best he knows—but there is a distinct failure in her poker face this morning, which makes Matt smile.

Joe is _so_ going to know. They don’t stand a _chance_.

When the door finally opens, the pair of them glance over their shoulders—or, well, _he_ does. Rachel’s clever enough to find a reflection in the door’s silver numbers. God, she’s clever.

The door creaks—something that Joe had specifically asked the landlord about when they first moved in—and when he catches sight of the living room, Matt immediately regrets every decision he’s ever made about their apartment. 

It’s exactly what you’d expect from a pair of twenty-something boys living together in what is, essentially, a bachelor pad. There’s a pile of shoes by the door, most of them stuffed with socks that haven’t been washed since they last saw Matt’s mother. Every lightbulb in the house is out, except for one that is very clearly approaching it’s expiration date. There’s a particularly disgusting game of Trash Can Jenga going on in the kitchen, right next to a pyramid of off-brand beer cans. Not to mention, the place _reeks_. 

But none of this— _absolutely none of it—_ is as bad as Joe Solomon’s smirk when the two of them walk through that door.

He’s sitting at the couch—the one with duct tape holding one of the legs on. He’s got his feet crossed on top of their trunk, three fresh cans of beer sitting right beside them, and a fourth in his hand. Joe’s got the highest tolerance out of anyone Matt knows, so the word is crystal clear when he says, “Matthew.”

And then his eyes shift, ever so slightly, to the girl that Matt’s brought home. Joe smiles. “Rachel.”

“Joe,” she greets, and Matt is in awe of how perfect a spy she is. Seriously. It’s like nothing’s changed when, if the night before is any indication, _everything_ has changed. “It’s been a while. How was Russia?”

“Big,” he replies. “How was Columbia?”

Rachel looks to Matt, but she’s not looking for backup. Nope. She’s got that dangerous smile on her lips again when she says, “Small.”

If Matt wasn’t red in the face before, he certainly was now. “I mean,” he cuts in. “I wouldn’t say it was _small_ , exactly. I’d say it was pretty _average size_ —Have you seen Monaco? Now _that_ is a small country. Columbia is pretty big, I think, and really, distortions in global maps give off false impressions about how large or small—”

“Matt,” Joe says, and Matt’s just glad that someone’s given him a reason to stop talking. “Our sink broke while you were gone. The one in the bathroom.”

It seems like an abrupt change of subject, and an odd one at that, but Matt’s happy for it. Anything to stop talking about Columbia. “Again?” he asks.

Joe nods, standing. “Mind doing that thing you do to get it going again?”

Well, as far as Matt knows, you just have to _hit_ the thing, and Joe’s perfectly capable of doing that on his own. Joe doesn’t need his help, but Matt’s always going to be there when he asks for it, so he turns to Rachel and says, “I’ll be right back.”

He feels like he should leave a kiss somewhere, but Joe’s here, and Matt’s not going to do anything to tip him off, so he just makes his way to the bathroom, Joe in tow.

“What’s wrong with it this time?” Matt asks, because usually there’s sludge building up at the bottom or a leak that wont stop. Aside from a few dents here and there, the thing looks fine. “Is it —?”

That’s when the door slams shut.

And Joe’s looking at Matt like he hasn’t had news in _weeks._ “What happened in Columbia, Matt?”

Matt firmly believes that Joe Solomon is the biggest gossip he knows. He never dishes out secrets, but _boy_ , he sure does collect them, so Matt knows that he’s not getting out of that door again until he gives his roommate something solid to work with. “We… had to go undercover. As a couple.”

Which is the truth—and Joe knows it. The best lies always have a little bit of truth in them. But Joe’s not buying it, because Joe’s good at his job. “That’s it?” he asks, knowing full well that it isn’t.

“That’s it,” Matt says, hoping that nothing else—

“She’s wearing your boxers, Matthew.”

Oh.

Right.

The boxers.

Joe was the one who had taught Matt not to keep lying once he’d been caught. Matt knows that it makes him look unreliable, unintelligent, and just generally unlikable, so he doesn’t keep at it. He just looks his best friend in the eye and says, “Yeah, okay?” and then he turns red again—Matt’s always turning red. It’s something that Joe’s always told him will get him killed. “We… might have… done some things.”

“I _knew_ it,” Joe hisses. “Oh my god, I _knew_ you looked different.”

“I do not look different.”

“Oh yes you do,” Joe says. “You’ve got this stupid little grin on your face.”

“Don’t tell her I told you.”

“What do you think I am, stupid? I’ve got your back, but you take care of her, you hear me?”

“Of course I will.”

“Yeah,” Joe says, and everything slows down again. It’s the absolute truth when Joe says, “I know you will.”

The two of them are stuck there for a moment, Joe basking in the fact that he was _so right_ about the two of them, and Matt trying to figure out just how he had gotten lucky enough to have the world’s best friend _and_ the world’s best… what was Rachel now?

But then Joe opens the door, and he says, “Good luck telling Abby.”

And Abby, Matt knows, will be significantly harder to tell than Joe was.

But he can’t worry about that right now. Right now, he’s still worried about that conversation in the living room. “Hey, Joe?” he says. “Columbia’s… Columbia’s not _that_ small, right?”

Joe turns back, looking like he wants to bust out laughing, but knowing that his is very serious business. “I’ve seen Columbia,” he says. “And it’s… pretty well off.”

“But it’s not like Canada or anything. I mean, Canada is _huge_.”

“I’ve heard a lot of people say that Canada is too big,” Joe says. “It’s got all that land up at the top that no one knows what to do with.”

“So then, Columbia is—“

“Your dick is fine, Matthew.”

And with those legendary words, Joe walks away, and Matt can hear him ask Rachel if she wants anything to eat.

And Matt’s just _knows_ that he’s so damn lucky to have those two.


End file.
